The wife and I just picked up our pre-cooked, ready to reheat Thanksgiving dinners. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes,and mashed potatoes. We also have a small pumpkin pie, apple pie, and ice cream.
We won’t even make rolls this year!
Reheated Turkey? It sounds like your going right to the leftovers. Also perhaps pick up a can of cranberry sauce. Happy Thanksgiving.
Awww, man you gotta have rolls (:)) and cranberries.
Seriously, so smart of you guys. Wish I could do that.
Enjoy!
Yanno, year before last, the whole fam damly over ruled the one dufus(not me this time) who wanted to have a conniption over a “traditional” thanksgiving. Gma decided she wasn’t cooking that year, nobody trusts his cooking (seriously ketchup is a flavor option for the table not to stovetop) we went out. Was one of the best least stressful most enjoyable for everyone (specially for Gma, she hasn’t cooked thxgiving since)
Did a thing from Boston Market, I think, a couple years ago.
Worst Thanksgiving ever. The stuffing was something akin to wall-paper paste, but not as tasty. Some kind of ‘green thing’ (no idea what it was, but it was inedible). Potatoes were hard, gravy was like a salt-lick, the cranberry stuff tasted like it was made with Sweet-Tarts.
Cost a butt-load, and most went straight to the trash.
I’ll do Taco-Bell before ever doing that again.
I wish you much better luck with your feast.
We went to a restaurant last year. It was fantastic. This year we just jettisoned the in-laws so it’s a manageable size. Also jettisoned the turkey. Doing a pork roast. Guess I should start.
The original conversation went something like this. . .
You don’t want to cook this year?
No, too much trouble and too many leftovers for just us.
Let’s get a pre-made dinner.
I dunno, that sounds kind of sad.
Would you like to just go to a restaurant?
No. An old couple eating in a restaurant on a holiday. That seems even sadder.
In other words, it’s the less sad, less troublesome alternative of the three. Plus, we’re actually making cornbread!
We decided to do a brunch this year. I ate a million slices of prime rib because turkey is like 35¢ a pound and I can cook that myself at home.
A few times I made stuffing/dressing, and then mixed in diced chicken breast and cooked the whole thing until it was done. That took care of the poultry and stuffing, then cooked some green beans and made a pumpkin pie. Not too shabby for a special meal without having to go too crazy.
Haven’t made it for a while because it still ends up being a lot of food, even if I scale it down. This weekend I will make pumpkin pie, however. Need pie.
For the past 19 years we’ve been going to my in-laws for Thanksgiving because my MIL is a nagging shrew of a yenta and made it clear that my wife was and is expected to be there every Thanksgiving.
Since MIL in particular and pretty much my wife’s entire family in general are shitty cooks, we took over turkey duties a decade or so ago. That’s expanded to include the stuffing and the cranberry sauce and the spiced cider and the pies and and and…
And yesterday I realized: I’m fucking sick of it. I bought a new roasting pan, spent two days buying the groceries and brining the bird and generally prepping everything. I got up at 6 am to put the turkey in the oven. We have a tiny kitchen and since we’re cooking 60% of the dinner it’s pretty crowded in there. Carving the bird is a royal PITA, I hate making gravy, and… yeah. I’m sick of it.
And to top it off, my MIL insists on eating her Thanksgiving meal at noon, but also invites about 6,000 people—many of whom can’t make it until later in the day. So the food sits out, buffet-style, while people gradually trickle in over the course of the afternoon and grab a plate and start heaping. So for 3/4 of the people there the food is stone cold.
I’ve been putting in way too much work for a big meal that isn’t appreciated and frankly isn’t eaten as intended.
I just got a new job that I’ve been planning on applying for for 9 months or so, and it comes with a significant salary increase. I told myself back in March that if I got it I would buy myself a good smoker and cook (among many other things) our Thanksgiving turkey on it. But now I think I’ll just get either a pre-cooked turkey from Safeway or roast a just a couple of turkey breasts. Jarred gravy, canned cranberry sauce. If my wife wants to put the work in and make the pies, great. If not, Marie Calendars will do nicely.
Or just say fuck it, and order pizza.
Or better yet, maybe I can convince my wife to spend next Thanksgiving and Christmas away from family.
We’ve been getting pre-made T-day dinners from Whole Foods for going on 5 years (well not this year, I just had hip replaced a week ago).
Anyway, my wife and I would travel the 100 miles to my Mom’s, pick up the dinner, and then a few others would join us. Can still be a lot of work just keeping everything hot and setting up tables to serve and sit (small house).
I heard a story on NPR yesterday about the increasing popularity of simply going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving, that’s what I thought this thread was actually going to be about. Apparently some restaurants now offer traditional Thanksgiving meals for the holiday, complete with special doggie bags for the leftovers that have become a part of the tradition. But now I can’t find the story to provide a cite; I’m guessing I heard it on a show that wasn’t actually produced by NPR. And there was no word on whether any restaurants run by a woman named Alice were offering Thanksgiving meals.
My mother’s mobility is limited these days so my parents Harris Teetered it this year. Prime rib. It was good. The sides were… fine, I guess. Sweet potatoes were extremely sweet. Green bean casserole was a little gross, but no one else complained, and I think that particular dish is pretty crappy to begin with anyways. Mashes potatoes are boring as ever. The most exciting thing on the table was the smoked beets that I made and brought.
I think I just don’t really like most traditional Thanksgiving dishes.
My take on the whole “family party/observance” deal …
If I am hosing said festivities at MY residence, the party will be those specifically invited - if I say on the invite no kids, no pets, no additional random guests, then that is exactly what I mean. When I say no alcohol, no smoking, that is exactly what I mean. When I say meal is served at 2 pm, that is exactly when the food hits the buffet, and in general the random celebration meal runs for about 2 hours - long enough to get food, sit and eat and have some talking going on.
Do not get butthurt when I tell you NO to kids, pets, your sister’s Aunt Sally [who I have never met] unless you call me specifically and ask if you can bring a specific person along - don’t just show up with a few extra people. Definitely do not get butthurt if i ask you to smoke outside, or not pop a bottle of beer or scotch - I might have someone with COPD/asthma [like ME!] or someone who was alcoholic and we don’t want to tempt. And really don’t get butthurt if you wander in at 5 pm and there is nothing left but carcass and crumbs … or if you show up at 1100 and I put you to work.
Look, when I send out a Thanksgiving invite, I will send a menu card with listing of ALL ingredients, I do not substitute randomly [well, I thought it would be nice to toss some walnuts into the stuffing, and peanut butter stirred into the gravy is amazeballs … NOT - I have a guest allergic to tree nuts, and one allergic to peanuts. I menu plan for a reason ] and if I am inviting 20 people, it means I am cooking for 25 people [allowing for someone who might be really hungry] but it doesn’t mean that I can absorb 5 additional guests unless I literally plate everybodies food in kitchen so someone doesnt’ go through the buffet line and pick out all the shrimps from the scampi sauce … [and yup, I had someone actually try to do that, their mother sort of Gibb’s smacked them and told them not to do that]
It is only common courtesy to RSVP, ask ingredients, ask if you can bring one or more additional guests, but if I specify no to something, then it is a hard NO …
Please, feel free to restrict your hosted festivities in writing and enforce it - and if you feel like a classic picnic for Thanksgiving, then do it. Smoke that turkey, serve potato salad, cole slaw, cornbread muffins … if they don’t like it, then they can host it next year. Probably the reason most people don’t want to host parties is the pain in the ass relatives …
Last year, I had thanksgiving with my parents. They drove down (a couple hours), stayed in a hotel, and we had dinner at…I think it was Chili’s. Might have been Applebee’s. They had a section open with a reduced menu. I had a steak and fries.
It was the best thanksgiving ever. Ever.
Okay, best thanksgiving as an adult, at least.
ETA: Oh, and then we got a few pints of ice cream and some cheap wine from Walmart. That was the dessert.
For maybe 33 years now Mrs. Napier has cooked Thanksgiving dinner (really nicely). But most of that time the 24 or 48 hours leading up to dinner has been hell, as she is angry and snapping at people and complaining about it. Yet she always insisted on doing it even though we’ve been pushing to go out to a restaurant instead. So this year we actually did go to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. She will still upset and complaining, but about the shifting situation. It’s always been the reason she turns nasty, cooking or no cooking. Not sure what to do, but for years I’ve been kind of wishing we could just skip November and December (as Christmas works somewhat the same).
What a shame, my prickliness aside, I really do like a gathering with food, good music and conversation - could something have happened at some point that gives her issues around holidays? I have a friend who was always treated badly by the in-laws and their kids really hate family events because they associate it with the nit-picking and backstabbing of the grandparents.
You sound like a lovely host. :rolleyes:
Even though the dinner can’t be beat, if Alice has a half-ton of garbage, don’t volunteer to dispose of it for her.:eek:
What is this green bean casserole you guys are talking about? No-one seems to like it, but it’s always mentioned as part of American Thanksgiving. 